“More money, more families”: How sports couple Allie LaForce and Joe Smith turned a charity gala into $600,000 for Huntington’s disease families

Allie LaForce summed up the purpose of the HelpCureHD gala with the words, “More money, more families. That simple,” as she described her goal of raising $1 million at the next event after the 2023 gala raised a record $600,000 for Huntington’s disease research and fertility treatment support, according to CultureMap Houston.The sports broadcaster, along with former Major League Baseball pitcher Joe Smith, directed attention and funding toward families affected by Huntington’s disease. The annual event brings together professional athletes, donors, medical specialists, and families who have received help from the couple’s foundation, which supports research and helps eligible families access fertility treatments that are designed to prevent the inherited disease from passing to their children.The September 2023 gala took place at Union Station inside Minute Maid Park, which was home of the Houston Astros at the time. CultureMap Houston reported that the event raised a record $600,000, with Astros players, team owner Jim Crane and other guests attending. The evening included a dinner, a silent auction, and donated experiences and memorabilia.A family diagnosis shaped the foundationSmith and LaForce established HelpCureHD in 2017, and their work started with Smith’s mother being diagnosed with Huntington’s disease in 2012 and dying in August 2020 after an eight-year battle with the condition, which his grandmother also died from. Huntington’s disease is an inherited disorder that progressively damages nerve cells in the brain and can affect movement, thinking and behaviour. A person who has a parent with the disease has a 50% chance of inheriting the genetic variant responsible for it. Smith has said publicly that he has chosen not to undergo genetic testing, instead focusing their efforts on helping families who want children without the disease. Their experience with the condition made fertility assistance a central part of the foundation’s work.A 2021 report by the Houston Chronicle described how the couple launched HelpCureHD to provide financial and emotional support to patients and families, as well as help cover the costs of fertility treatment. It also documented their own experience with preimplantation genetic testing and in-vitro fertilisation.How the money helps familiesHelpCureHD provides grants to eligible families pursuing preimplantation genetic testing with in-vitro fertilisation, commonly called PGT-IVF. The process allows embryos created through IVF to be tested for a specific genetic variant before an embryo is selected for transfer, and for families at risk of passing on Huntington’s disease, the approach can help them have a child who does not carry the disease-causing variant. The treatment can be expensive and may require more than one IVF cycle, and the foundation’s financial assistance is intended to reduce that barrier for families who might otherwise struggle to afford the process. The charity also supports efforts to raise awareness and fund work related to Huntington’s disease.The organisation’s public updates describe the foundation’s focus on helping families pursue fertility treatment and supporting efforts to combat the disease. Research may contribute to better treatments or, eventually, a cure, but the foundation’s IVF grants address a more immediate concern for families who want to reduce the chance of passing the disease to their children. Genetic testing does not treat Huntington’s disease in an affected person; it is used in this context to inform embryo selection during fertility treatment.A gala built around families, not just donorsThe 2023 event also gave families who had received assistance an opportunity to meet the donors and supporters behind the programme, with CultureMap reporting that the couple had helped more than 135 couples pursue the goal of having a child free of Huntington’s disease. Their young son, Jacob, who was born in November 2022, also attended the gala. LaForce has spoken about the physical and emotional demands of IVF, including the repeated procedures involved in fertility treatment, and the couple’s public advocacy has drawn attention to the choices faced by people who have a family history of an inherited disorder and want biological children.The gala’s $600,000 total was a fundraising result for that year’s event, not an annual guarantee or a measure of the foundation’s full lifetime funding. The couple has continued to organise fundraising events and promote HelpCureHD’s work through their sports and philanthropic networks. The foundation’s model depends on contributions from donors and supporters to help eligible families meet fertility costs, and for those families, the assistance can make a costly medical process more accessible while they weigh the personal decisions that come with a hereditary diagnosis.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.